Sunrise seeks to lower car insurance premium

December 19, 2013|Alyssa Cutter, acutter@tribune.com

Sunrise wants to make having red light cameras in the city pay off for its residents.

City commissioners recently passed a resolution urging Florida insurance companies to look into lowering premiums for drivers who live in cities that have a red light camera program, which Sunrise is one.

Assistant Deputy Mayor Larry Sofield brought the idea forward, believing that it would make sense to lower premiums since the community has proven to be safer with the cameras.

"I saw this was done by another local city, and it just made sense to me," Sofield said. "We are making our intersections safer with our traffic-safety program, and it just seems that our residents should benefit from that by trying to get an insurance discount."

Across the United States in large metropolitan communities with the red light cameras in place, crashes have decreased by 24 percent and saved 159 lives, according to a 2011 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. According to Sunrise documents, from fiscal year 2011/2012 to 2012/2013, Sunrise dropped eight percent in total crashes at the five intersections that have the cameras in place.

"We're seeing tickets decrease, which means people are complying, and we are seeing accidents at those intersections decrease, at least by what is being reported by other communities," Mayor Mike Ryan said. "I think that's been our experience here, as well as in Sunrise. I think it makes sense and that it is the next logical extension of what needs to happen as the data continues."

The next step for Sunrise commissioners is to bring the idea and resolution to the Broward and Florida League of Cities for more support in getting Florida insurance companies on board with the idea.